Our past together Chapter two - The best day
by agssaamor
Summary: Chapter two of Our past together! I bet you didn't expect that I would post the second chapter so fast! I hope you enjoy it, I thought this chapter is much better than the first.


**Chapter two.**

The afternoon was sunny with the summer breeze; Shang was waiting for Moon near the bridge that he saved her in the morning; even though he only met her that morning, in his mind, she was cute and a little crazy; but actually he found it interesting, because it resembled his mother's way; both did not follow the standards that society imposed on women, and in fact he thought these standards imposed by society on women were ridiculous; After all, why even his schoolmates think that the ideal girl was a girl with snow-pale skin who did the housework perfectly and would only speak with her husband's permission?

"It's more for the dullest girl there is!" Shang said in his thoughts remembering a dialogue with his school friends about this subject, "The guys who think the ideal girl is like that, they want a porcelain doll, not a wife." He said it to himself out loud as he tied his hair up in a bun.

"For me, the ideal girl must have a normal skin color and not look sick; Housework really needs to be done correctly, but that's not the most important thing; and honestly, I prefer someone with whom I can talk." Shang told himself, thinking how stupid was the ideal girl pattern, and how Moon was the kind of girl he would say it's, interesting.

"Humph, how much longer will she take to appear?" He Asked Himself Impatient (we all already know that he has no patience); but then he felt that someone touched him on the shoulder; he turned and saw that Moon was behind him, with her cute innocent smile.

"What's up? Did I take much time?" She said in a defiant tone. "Yes you did, let's walk around." He answered and they walked to where there were other children.

Minutes later they arrived in a square where there were many children, especially girls, playing with each other.

Moon pulled him by the shirt to get his attention, he looked at her and she was looking worried. "Hey, what's wrong?" Shang asked confused. "Those girls always call me by nicknames and tell me things I don't like to hear…" She said in an upset tone as she pointed to five girls who were playing doll. "What do they say?" He asked in an annoyed tone; why would these girls do that?

"Straw hair" "dirty skin" "Go change clothes! Your outfit is ridiculous!" "You…" Moon couldn't say anything else because Shang raised his hand motioning for her to stop talking. He was very angry with those girls, certainly girls who thought that way, when they were grown up, would be the kind of girl he would describe as: futile.

"Come with me, I'll tell some truths for those stupid brats." He said as he grabbed her arm taking her to where the girls were; Moon was worried, would he be able to hit those girls? No, he was a cool guy, wouldn't hit a girl.

"Hey you! Can I talk to you about something?" He said sarcastically, because he said smiling but inside he was boiling with rage.

One of the girls (the biggest bully between the girls; she was nine years old, same height as Moon, she was wearing a pink childlike Hanfu dress and wore her hair tied in two low ponytails), she stood up and spoke very sweetly to Shang as she found him handsome, but the way she spoked just made him even angrier.

"Hi, what's your name? Do you want to play with us?" The girl spoke very sweetly as she curled her fingers in her hair, looking at him with a flirting look. "Really? This girl barely talks to me and right after tries to pretend to be charming? If women are like this, I think I understand why men have to protect them." Shang said in his thoughts.

The other girls also got up and were visibly whispering to each other about him. Then the biggest bully arched her eyebrows as she noticed Moon was right behind him.

"Why are you with this weird girl?" She said in a very arrogant tone.

"She is who told me about you five." He replied ironically

"Well 'straw hair' looks like you're ugly but useful for something." One of the other girls commented referring obviously to Moon.

"Hey! Don't say such a thing! She is not ugly at all and for sure she is useful!" Shang said trying not to look too exalted; he wanted to give the impression that he didn't know what they did with Moon, since he feared they would be mad at her.

"Li please… better not get in trouble; just ignore them and let's play elsewhere." Moon said with her head down and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"That's not the problem." Shang answered immediately without looking at Moon. "You shouldn't bother someone without reason, I'm being serious! I think it's stupid to talk like this about others." He said imposing himself, because such attitude of the girls irritated him deeply, since he was also disturbed by the children of the village (though the delinquent boys were no longer a problem).

"Dirty skin, how much time do you spend outdoors?" One of the girls calmly asked Moon as if it was nothing.

"A-Almost all day…" Moon answered in a shaky voice and her head bowed.

"Stupid little brat…" That thought was all that went through his mind at that moment of anger.

"It's obvious why your skin is so tanned! That's why we call you dirty skin!" The biggest bully she said smiling and pointing at Moon.

"SHUT UP!" Shang shouted, stamping his foot on the ground and with that angry expressions on his face we that already know; immediately making the five girls startle, because when he gets angry he gets very imposing.

"Stop being so disgusting and calling others by such cruel nicknames! You are despicable! Is this how your parents raised you?! Because if so, I feel sorry for you! With such a creation you will be horrible women to live with! Change your behavior or life will punish you!" Shang said almost shouting, Moon was surprised; she had already realized that he could be imposing if he wanted to, but did not imagine that he would yell at the girls like that, for a moment she wondered if he would hit them.

She wouldn't find out anyway, as the girls panicked and ran off. The other children shouted cheers at him, because those five girls disturbed several children in that place. Shang just smiled, feeling it was very gratifying to see those petty girls running away in panic.

"Thank you very much!" Moon said hugging him tightly from behind, Shang was surprised and blushed; for Moon, Shang was her hero now, as he freed her from the girls who disturbed her.

"For a moment, I feared you'd hit those five." Moon said taking her arms off Shang, as he turned around and looked on her face. "I wouldn't ever hit a girl; my father always said that men should protect women and respect them."

"Hey, I know a place you would like to see. Will you come with me there?" Moon asked with a smiling face.

"Sure! Where is this place?" He asked excited. "Follow me and you'll find out." Moon answered and grabbed him by the wrist taking him to "that" place.

Shang was wondering how this place would be, but all of Moon's ideas were great, then he was expecting that it would be fun.

After a few minutes walking, they arrived in a shallow lake of crystal water; the lake was surrounded by trees and you could hear birdsong, the glow of the afternoon sun reflected off the water, and there were several rocks on the shore of the lake. It was a wonderful place.

"Here we are!" Moon said excitedly raising her arms high. "What do you think?"

"It's so awesome!" Shang said in wonder, his eyes were shining; it was the most beautiful place he had ever seen.

"Do you want to get in the lake?" Moon asked quietly.

"How? This lake is too shallow to swim." He replied in doubt.

"But we can get our feet in the water and see fish babies more closely." Moon said taking off her shoes and socks and rolling up the pants legs.

"In this case I want to get in the lake!" He answered and quickly also took off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants legs.

Both got in the water, and saw the fish babies and even find some shells. Then suddenly he felt a lot of water falling over him leaving him soaked. Still astonished, he looked back and saw Moon almost crying with laughter; he just thought "I'll get revenge", Moon had her burst of laughter interrupted because Shang pushed her and she fell backwards into the shallow lake water.

Now he was the one who was laughing a lot, Moon got up and laughed a lot too as they both splashed water each other. When they stopped, they realized that their clothes were soaked.

"Wow! If we don't find a way to dry our clothes, we'll have to hear a scolding from our moms." Shang said putting a hand behind the nape of his neck.

"I know what we can do Li. If we put our clothes on those stones, the sun heat will dry them quickly." Moon said appointing to the stones.

"Great idea" He answered taking off his sleeveless shirt as they approached the stones (and before you think it, Moon didn't get embarrassed when Shang took off his shirt, since she was an innocent child).

They both sat on the rocks with their backs to each other as they waited for their clothes to dry. "What's your favorite food?" Moon asked without looking back for "OBVIOUS" reasons.

"Soy sauce noodles. What's yours?" He answered and made the same question to her.

"Rice." Moon answered. "Do you have any siblings?" She asked.

"No, but I would like to. I don't have many friends." He answered.

"Me neither; and I don't have any siblings too. I would like to, but I know this is impossible."

"For me this will be possible on the day my parents agree to have another child, which means: never!"

They both laughed at his comment; those two lonely children had a very fun day, and saved each other from their bullies, Moon urged Shang to face his attackers as he knew how to fight better than all of them together; Shang defended Moon from the girls who always bothered her, just like the boys who disturbed him, those girls were cowards. One thing is undeniable; sometimes you just need to help someone to face their problems so that someone helps you.

"Li, can you check if our clothes are already dry?" Moon asked.

"Yes I'll do it now." He got up and walked to where the clothes were; the clothes were already dry, so he put on his clothes and closed his eyes so as not to see the girl.

"Your clothes are already dry! Come here and put them on; I already closed my eyes and put my clothes." He said in a very loud tone so she could hear.

She turned her head toward his voice and saw that he was covering his eyes with his hands and was already dressed. She got up and walked toward him; she quickly got dressed but didn't tie her hair.

"Open your eyes, I already got dressed." Moon said as she took his hands off his face.

"The sun is already going down; let's go back to our houses." Shang added as he handed her shoes to her.

"Can we meet tomorrow?" Moon asked with her shy voice.

"Sure, we can meet here tomorrow afternoon." He answered with his smiling face as he walked away.

Moon smiled and turned around, walking in the opposite direction.

Shang walked for a few minutes until he got home, all the way back home, he kept thinking about the fun day he spent with his new friend.

When he got home, the maid was outside cleaning the windows. "Hey Jia, shouldn't you be preparing dinner?" He asked the middle aged woman.

"Your mom decided she was going to prepare dinner today so I could clean the windows outside the house." The old lady answered calmly.

"And what has she prepared?" The eleven year old boy asked.

"Fish and shrimp." The maid answered without looking at him and continued cleaning the window.

"Aren't you going to dinner?" He asked as he pointed to the front door.

"I'll go later. You better get in right before your mom gets mad at your delay." She replied.

"Okay! See you later Jia!" He said and ran into the house.

"This boy may be innocent but it is incontestable that he has a golden heart." The old maid thought as smiled.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home! Am I late?" Shang said as he entered the dinner room.

"No son, your mother is still preparing the dinner but is almost ready." General Li answered while put the plates on the dining table.

"Hi father! I thought you would come home later." Shang said as he sat at the table.

"I also thought this, but the meeting in the imperial city with the other generals and Chi Fu ended sooner than I thought." General Li added speaking with his calm voice.

Shang simply sighed and rolled his eyes. He never had a good impression about Chi Fu; he knew Chi Fu was a wise man, since he was the emperor's adviser; but Shang repudiated the arrogant way he referred to people socially below him, especially women.

Another thing that made him nauseous just being in his presence was that "the emperor's adviser" was ridiculously flatterer to anyone socially above him. Every time Chi Fu visited his house (were not just a few), he talked about what he liked about women, with his indiscreet comments he made without caring if he or his mother Li Wang were present in the room. Both Shang and Wang had to control themselves so as not to expel him from the house.

"How are my favorite guys doing?" Li Wang asked excitedly entering the dining room bringing a large bowl of fish with shrimp and putting on the table.

"Hello mom! I played all afternoon with the girl I met this morning." He said turning toward his mother.

"Really? I want to know all the details." His mother said as she sat at the table for dinner.

"I want to know what happened too. This girl seems to be very interesting." General Li commented sarcastically.

During dinner, he told or happened that afternoon, except for what happened on the lake. His parents were very proud that he defended the girl from her bullies and scared them by just imposing himself.

"Well, tomorrow I'll visit my friend, the lieutenant Xiao by the afternoon and it's been a while since you have seen him. Wouldn't you rather visit him with me tomorrow?" General Li asked at his son.

"I would like to, but and how about my friend Moon?" Shang asked to his father, he was thinking if his new friend would be mad at him for not appearing on their appointment.

"Don't worry dear; she'll understand if you explain to her later, and you like talking to Xiao, so why don't you go with your father?" His mother said tenderly to him.

"So I think I'll go tomorrow with you, visit him." He said to his father.

They finished their dinner and Shang he got up from the dining table and went to the room where they take a bath to wash his hair and his body. Minutes later he came out the room and went to his bedroom to change clothes and sleep.

As soon as he lay in bed his parents appeared at his bedroom door saying good night to him and he said goodnight to them as well. His parents knew he was developing feelings for the girl but he didn't know what that meant; it didn't matter, he was very innocent so any feeling was pure, and they loved to see their son so happy.

The eleven-year-old boy fell asleep with a smile on his face; little did he know that the next night he would go to sleep after crying until there were no more tears to cry.

_End of chapter._

_Wait for the next chapter that is coming soon._


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